The immensely ancient and familiar sound of ocean waves echoes in his ears.

Blearily, the one in the water believes himself still at the seabed.

“Memoirs… the past… “

“Little brother… 26 years old… “

Yang Zicang suddenly snaps his eyes open. The viscous seawater beside his ear gushes into his ear canal. His small construction company, his brother who lived barely past his twenties, his father confined to a sickbed for over a decade… then his children, grandchildren…

All these images rapidly collapse into the deepest recesses of his consciousness.

The awakened young man looks around. On the water’s surface, something seems to be shattering and spreading outward. Like fragments of ice under the full moon, they scatter pale, ethereal moonlight before dissolving swiftly.

Plip-plop… plip-plop…

Out of the darkness ahead, the sturdy, iron-plated wooden boat comes into view, gliding closer. A figure appears at its edge.

“Grab the rope! “

The sharp cry rings out from the man on the boat as he tosses the rope into the water.

“Hurry up. I’ll head back right after I fish you out. “

They appeared beside him just as he woke up.

Yang Zicang doesn’t have time to figure out what’s going on. He grabs the rope with one hand and loops the net around his waist. The mesh around him tightens quickly, binding him securely. Then, gripping the rope, the man makes his way toward the wooden boat with a hull that rises over a meter above the water.

On the deck, lying flat, Yang Zicang feels the heavy soaking on his body draining away rapidly. In the end, only a faint dampness remains, like that of a light drizzle.

“Hey there, it’s been a while since I last came across folks like you this late into things. My mop-up work’s pretty much complete now, aha. “

Yang Zicang looked up. On the wet, dark-brown wooden boat stood a man in a gray linen shirt, wearing a tattered mandarin jacket over it—a boatman in his fifties or so.

The boatman looped the coarsely coarse ropes one by one, each tied with small floating buoys.

“Hurry, get on your feet. “

So, this is the Track of FateSecond Fate?

Yang Zicang glanced down at his own body, the water stains on his clothing rapidly seeping away.

“This water…? “

“Ha! I’ve pulled plenty of folk out of the water, and you’re the first to come asking about the water with your very first words—besides maybe two others in all this time. Don’t worry about it, it’s harmless stuff. It just can’t seem to leave this sea, that’s all. “

After tasting the bitter, salty tang in his mouth, Yang Zicang climbed to his feet and looked down at his clothes—they were exactly the same as when he’d left the Demon Hero Hall.

“Hello. I’m Yang Zicang. And you are? “

“Lang. Hailiqiang. But given your way of doing things around here, just call me Aqiang. “

｛I, the Great Quadrilateral, find that name isn’t too bizarre or outlandish.｝

In the dim light spilling out of the cabin, Yang Zicang finally got a clear look at the man. Though he seemed outwardly akin to an Earth human, the arrangement of his facial features carried a distinct, strong flavor from foreign lands.

A sweatband was tied across his forehead, and his ears came to elongated cat-like tips like those of wildcats but very unlike the beast-people of literary say.

Just as an aquiline nose is merely a fitting description for a person, their lynx-like ears, too, are made of flesh and blood like a human’s, only slightly more unique in shape and positioned just the same as ours.

Yet, stretching from behind his ears down to his throat were layered, arc-shaped fine lines, making his face appear even leaner and sharper. This was most likely one of the native inhabitants of this world. This natural embellishment, however, made this ferryman look spirited and energetic, even if he seemed fifty or so years old.

_”Hee hee, so? If you’ve got no objections, could you spare me a little compensation?” the man said.

_”What is it you want?”

Yang Zicang lifted his gaze and surveyed his surroundings. Beneath the silver-white full moon was an endless expanse of thick, jet-black water, along with deep, hazy mists rising high like towering tsunamis that never came crashing down but only drifted languidly.

They stretched like a boundless wall across the swelling, dark sea.

Aqiang’s eyes sparkled with anticipation as he fixed his gaze on Yang Zicang. _”Your lifespan.”

Whoosh—the water rippled and splashed.

_”Of course, you’ve earned it,” Yang Zicang said.

In the pitch-dark night, Aqiang saw Yang Zicang hand him a softly glowing, hazy coin.

The moment he took it, a look of astonishment appeared on the lean, middle-aged man’s face.

_”This… is a coin containing a hundred years of life! Guest, er, I’m sorry, just giving me a few years yourself would’ve been fine.”

This time, it was Yang Zicang who was a bit puzzled. The low-sequence coins he had prepared still had a number left.

Aqiang handed the coin back to the black-clad youth before him.

“Let’s go into the cabin and have some ginger water to ward off the cold first. You can settle my payment later. “

Surprised that he refused, Yang Zicang put away the coin. “Thank you. May I ask if your job is simply to fish people like us out of the sea? “

“Haha, yes, that’s the main work for me and this boat. If I didn’t do it, you’d all be sleeping soundly in the sea forever. “

Yang Zicang looked at the boat.

It was noticeably larger than an ordinary fishing boat, with handmade iron panels covering its outer hull—clearly not an evil nightmare ship. Although the boat lacked a lower cargo hold, the interior of the cabin was divided into two sections. The front area held cargo and firefly glow lamps hanging from wooden posts, while the room in the back was a bit brighter.

Now, a flicker of doubt crossed Yang Zicang’s mind as he reached out to lift the cabin curtain. Inside, a man was already wrapped head to toe in a wool blanket, and a steaming cup of water sat on a small table. When he saw Yang Zicang enter, the man, even with his head bundled in the blanket, showed surprise.

“It’s you! “

“That’s right, it’s me. “

Aqiang, behind Yang Zicang, chuckled, “Oh, so in your world, this young friend here is a celebrity? “

The man opposite replied with a snort, “Ha, a ‘celebrity’ is an understatement. Before I left, he was practically a brother known to almost everyone. Come, have a seat. My code name is Liu Haichuan. “

“Hello, Little Liu. “

Liu Haichuan instantly put on a bitter face, as if his real surname had been exposed.

Aqiang poured Yang Zicang a bowl of ginger soup, then took out a brass item about the size of a pocket watch and glanced at it.

Yang Zicang asked Aqiang, “Why do you say that the lifespan I voluntarily give you is better for you than what it gives? “

He shook the “Tianbao of All Things ” he had forged himself in his hand.

A trace of emotion flickered across the middle-aged man’s face.

“Only a life span imbued with the aura of you living beings can sustain my identity… but ah, forget it, I guess this will have to do. “

The other man across the wooden table also looked at him. Under their gazes, the middle-aged man said:

“Let me reintroduce myself, heh heh, you two. I am a ‘ferryman,’ specially dedicated to guiding souls like you—also called a ‘Dumin.’ First, I need to announce a few rules of conduct to you both. “

“Please, go ahead. “

“To this broken world, all of you are non-existent people. So if you appear in the city, do not reveal your true origins to ordinary folks. Your unified identity will be ‘Fogfolk’—that is, in legend, refugees from a lost kingdom across the sea. From now on, even when facing people from your own world, please say the same. I will distribute ‘Fogfolk’ identity papers to you later. “

Yang Zicang exchanged a glance with the other man. Both sensed something eerie about this place; it seemed to have even more taboos and concerns than the previous city.

The Dumin, Aqiang, continued:

“Originally, you were supposed to obtain some information from me, which would help you integrate here faster. But the person who compiled it has already run off. Not that it would have been of much use to you anyway, since I suppose you’ll also be leaving right away, just like those other guys. “

“What kind of information? “

“Of course, basic encyclopedic knowledge of this world—the sort of stuff sold in shops and handed out at schools. “

I see. Yang Zicang felt a bit embarrassed. The Crossing Person continued:

“Well, as a ferryman among the Crossing People, I can trade for more than five years of your life to grant you rapid language acquisition. But right now… I can’t take that much life anymore. “

Yang Zicang rubbed the dead skin on his forehead, softened by the sea saltwater. So it seemed he couldn’t get anything useful from this ferryman.

Liu Haichuan, sitting across the table, suddenly said solemnly, “Captain, what do you mean by that? The language isn’t understood here? “

“That’s not the issue. ” Yang Zicang stopped him. “Why did you say our help is now ‘of little use’? And what did you mean by us leaving immediately? “

Aqiang said, “Right now, the continent is overrun by ‘Blood Beasts’ transformed by the Twin Lion Empire’s army. War is everywhere. The Steel Crusaders, fighting alongside devils, have taken over huge swathes of the land. Even many previously neutral nations haven’t been spared, let alone those who resisted from the start. The world… is already falling under the devils’ control. “

Yang Zicang and Liu Haichuan, wrapped in his blanket, exchanged a glance, both wearing expressions that said,We just knew there’d be trouble.

“At least there’s that. ” Aqiang, leaning against the weathered wooden wall, gave a bitter smile, looking deeply troubled.

“At least what? “

“At least there are even stranger things out there taking care of those bastards, and in their own twisted way, protecting us too. Forget it—never mind. Anyway, you’d better cross the mainland as soon as possible and catch the last ferry out of here. After that, you’ll have to swim across the sea on your own. “

With that, Aqiang turned and went out onto the deck, pulling up the anchor to set sail.

Not long after the boat sailed, an old wall clock in the cabin suddenly chimed, “Dong, dong. ” A pointer, resembling the digit on a numeric display, automatically swung to point in a certain direction, its tip emitting a silvery gray glow.

“It’s lit up! ” Liu Haichuan exclaimed.

“Oh, ah… so many people noticed today. ” Aqiang returned to the cabin, glancing around with a puzzled look.

The man on the other side of the wooden table glanced at Yang Zicang. “Brother, don’t be surprised. It rang before you woke up too. “

So that’s how it was. Yang Zicang set down the bowl of ginger soup he was holding and nodded in acknowledgment. His mind, however, still lingered on his final moments inside the “Demon Fangs Grinding Wheel. “